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Customer Reviews of Persuasion

Austen in her maturity.
In Mrs. Croft's statement "we women don't want to be in calm waters all our lives" Jane Austen and her heroine, Anne Elliott, move beyond the domestic, from the bracing sea air of Lyme, to glimpses into the seafaring adventures of the Navy brethren. This to me is the predominate appeal of Persuasion - Anne, in her approaching maturity, is reunited with her former suitor in what we may expect is a deeper, more heartfelt love, having endured separation for so many years and she has the prospect of joining him at sea. My heart leaps to see her escaping domesticity and the dull social duties as exemplified by Sir Walter and her sister Elizabeth. Of course, Austen's use of language is perfect. My favourite Austen novel. The film adaptation with Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds exquisitely captures the mood and characters of this book.

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An enchanting and entertaining read
Jane Austen's "Persuasion" accomplishes the feat of rewarding both extremely casual and deeper, more analytical readings. It certainly contains enough genuine insight into humanity, and social relationships in particular, to be considered a "serious" novel. But "Persuasion" defies the stereotype that accompanies this genre. Rather than being ponderous and solemn, it is instead a work of sheer joy to read. Readers are treated to a complex novel that reads like a summer beach book.

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of "Persuasion" is how it balances the depth and richness with pure entertainment. Anne, her sisters, her father, and of course Captain Wentworth, are all very complex and fully fleshed-out characters. At the same time, however, they are all delightful people to read about. Anne in particular is charming and compassionate. Austen's prose is wonderful; witty, intelligent, and clear. And the story itself, a tale of people in love, is universal in its appeal and yet never once becomes formulaic. The novel, then, is a fantastic success in every possible way. It provides the richness of great literature with the charm of the greatest writers. I can't recommend "Persuasion" highly enough.

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A Delicately Wrought Autumnal Minuet
Like all of her novels, Jane Austen's PERSUASION is essentially a comedy of manners--a work in which the characters must negotiate a complex code of conduct in order to survive, much less achieve their ends. And in a certain sense the novel is indicative of Austen's great talent, razor sharp, laced with irony and wit, and remarkably phrased. And yet PERSUASION is quite unlike Austen's other novels in the story it tells.

Eight years earlier, Anne Elliot fell in love with a man named Wentworth. Her family and friends disdained the match, arguing that the man was below her in station and lacked any fortune with which to maintain Anne in her accustomed mode of life. Persuaded to reject him against her own will, Anne broke off the engagement--and thereafter found herself unable to love another even as she endured the follies of her father and two sisters. But Wentworth has returned, having made his name and fortune with the British navy, and it is now his turn to reject her.

Published in 1816, PERSUASION is the last novel Austen completed before her death a year later, and it is remarkable for a very autumnal tone. Unlike such Austen masterpieces as PRIDE AND PREJUDICE and EMMA, the herione is not a spirited, quickwitted young women on the verge of matrimony; the hero is not a dashing gentlemen of great estate; there is no verbal duel between the sexes. It is instead the story of a commonsense and pleasantly ordinary woman who considers herself past the likelihood of marriage--and who now wishes only to escape the emotional pain and humiliation visited upon her by a suitor from long ago.

While PERSUASION does not really stand along Austen's greatest works, it is nonetheless a very fine novel, a delicately wrought tale of opportunity lost and the passage of time, told in the uniquely piercing style so typical of the author--and while, of course, all eventually comes right for the romantically downtrodden Anne, it has a touch of melancholy quite unlike the tone of her other novels. Austen readers will find it a delight.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer